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FASTSIGNS Lacey is in the business of making your business stand out. You can go almost anywhere and have promotional material printed, but FASTSIGNS Lacey gives you a higher quality product alongside their stellar consultation services making sure your hard-earned marketing dollars pay you back with a business boost. We aren’t all wordsmiths or artists. […]

There are few things better than a morning of fun and fitness while supporting a good cause, which is exactly what the WSECU Presents YMCA’s 30th Annual Spring Run on May 6 is all about. This year’s event promises to be bigger than ever with over 1,300 participants expected. One perk offered for the past several […]

Above: Over 100 interested community members attended the City of Olympia's annual sea level rise report to the community, delivered by Andy Haub, the city's water resources director,at the Olympia Center on February 8. Olympia is starting a coordinated sea level rise response plan with the Port of Olympia and the LOTT Clean Water Alliance.By Janine GatesLittle Hollywoodhttp://www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com“This is going to go on forever…this will be our future,” said Andy Haub, City of Olympia water resources director, about the city's planning for sea level rise. Speaking to the city’s citizen utility advisory committee on Thursday evening, Haub provided an update on the city’s sea level rise plan and the committee's role in its implementation.

The citizen advisory committee is charged with overseeing the city’s sea level rise planning process.Looking at a draft plan schedule that included typical public outreach tools employed by the city, the group was quiet and seemingly a bit daunted by the responsibility. When a member questioned how they should go about their role, Haub admitted that there is no clear recipe. “You’ll have to use your collective judgement,” Haub said, acknowledging that sea level science is evolving, but there are strategies the city can draw upon from around the country and the world.

They agreed that the ultimate governance for the plan, whatever that plan turns out to be, needs to be carried through the whole process, and not left to the end.At its regular Tuesday meeting, April 11, the Olympia city council is expected to sign an interlocal agreement with the Port of Olympia and the LOTT Clean Water Alliance for the planning and assessment of sea level rise issues. The city, Port of Olympia, and LOTT all own properties and have responsibilities in the area where sea level rise is expected to inundate downtown Olympia.An international engineering firm, AECOM, has been chosen to help the city determine the plan’s scope of work and ensure a robust public involvement process.The scope of work will focus on the development of a sea level rise plan and provide recommendations for capital projects, funding needs, implementation schedules, and emergency response protocols. The plan will include a full analysis of options for responding to various sea level rise scenarios over a 100 year time frame, and look for ideas from other areas of the United States and the world.The city, port, and LOTT will divide the costs for consulting services. The port and LOTT will pay up to $75,000 each and the city will pay at least $75,000. Total costs for consulting are not to exceed $250,000 without further negotiation and approval.According to science based research and multiple reports, there is no doubt sea level rise will impact downtown Olympia as we know it.

Thad Curtz, former chair of the Utility Advisory Committee citizen advisory committee, was one of several community members who expressed concerns on Thursday about the plan’s scope of work.

“The staff presentation said that we’re eventually going to have eight feet of sea level rise. We ought to be thinking about (a plan) with respect to earthquake risk. If we have four feet of sea water outside of whatever we build, and we have an earthquake that impacts a dike or whatever, we’re going to have very serious costs. We need to be planning to deal with that.

“We’re talking about restoration of Budd Inlet at the same time we’re talking about seriously altering the shoreline from Priest Point Park to West Bay. We also have the whole Capitol Lake process going on. Those planning processes ought to be related to each other.“We [also ought] to have a conversation about setbacks. How much room do we need between buildings and the shore if we’re going to have to deal with eight feet? We can’t just talk about sea level rise as if it’s something by itself,” said Curtz, who said he intends to stay involved with the conversation.Former city planning commission member Judy Bardin said that adaptation for sea level rise will be a huge and costly undertaking, noting that city staff estimates that sea level rise adaptation for downtown Olympia will cost in excess of $60 million, and the pumping system alone could be $37 million.“If the public is going to be asked to pay for sea level rise mitigation in any way, they need to be brought into the conversation now, especially in the scoping of the plan…we need to involve our neighborhoods and the environmental community,” she said.

Helen Wheatley of Olympia asked staff and the utility advisory committee members to think of all people who are impacted by utility decisions and plans.“It includes everyone from low income apartment dwellers, to treaty tribe members struggling to preserve and enhance salmon habitat in the face of over a century of catastrophic assaults on the ecosystem,” she said.

Wheatley urged that the plan take a “safety first” approach that considers the realities of who lives there, who will live there in the future, and how we live.

“Is it fair or right to drive people into the flood zone because they don’t own a house?” she asked.

“Sea level rise will not happen overnight, but its progression will be relentless. We can choose to transition ourselves into a newer city by moving uphill. How long we hang on to different parts of downtown will involve tough financial, emotional, technical, and political decisions,” said Walt Jorgensen of Tumwater.

Sea Level Rise Community UpdateAbove: In what has become a familiar scene, the city's public works team, with Andy Haub, City of Olympia water resources director, in yellow jacket, stationed themselves near the Oyster House restaurant on Sylvester Street in downtown Olympia on the morning of March 10, 2016, to monitor the surge from nearby Budd Inlet.Haub gave his annual sea level rise update to the community on February 8 at the Olympia Center. Over 100 people were in attendance. Haub described how the city is currently needing to manage four to five significant downtown flooding incidents per year. To add to that scenario, downtown Olympia appears to be sinking at the rate of one inch per decade.

A situation of low atmospheric pressure creates exceptional high tides, turning moderate tides into high tides, and high tides into extreme tides.“That whole dynamic is absolutely fascinating…the intensity of storms will increase. Our downtown streets are flat, not deep, so water will spread far,” said Haub, who has long reported that the city could manage one foot, or maybe two feet of water, but no more than that. Vertical gates, flood barriers, elevated landscapes, and the strategic placement of planter box barriers will only work up to a certain point.“We’re planning for two feet of sea level rise by 2050, but with two feet of water flooding downtown every other day, it just won’t work for long,” he said.Audience members were at all different levels of understanding about sea level science, and peppered Haub with questions about sea level rise projections for downtown, Budd Inlet flood dynamics, and the city’s plan in relationship to other plans, such as the multi-year, $250,000 study called the Downtown Strategy.The Downtown Strategy has a 20 year planning horizon, leaving many to wonder why the city is encouraging downtown development, and how sea level rise fits in.Although port commissioners and city council members were present in the audience, Haub stood alone, fielding questions while facilitating a complicated conversation during his PowerPoint presentation. Lacking support, he lost control of the meeting about 20 minutes into the program.Frustrating some audience members, Haub unquestionably defended the city’s stance that downtown must be saved. Several audience members expressed their opinion that the best solution is to retreat to higher ground. Haub responded that a retreat is not consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Plan.Haub did not have answers for many questions, including the impact of sea water salinity on downtown’s underground and above ground electrical systems.“Downtown is vulnerable. We have to accept and acknowledge the risk. This plan will start addressing how we balance and manage new development. There’s a way we can do it, it’s just not cohesive at this point,” he said, adding that the city has a lot of investments in downtown Olympia, most notably the region's LOTT water and wastewater system, which is valued at $1.2 billion.Above: During times of high tide and favorable atmospheric pressure, certain areas of downtown Olympia are inundated with storm surge from Budd Inlet, overloading storm water systems. The area on State Street in downtown Olympia near the former Les Schwab tire store building at 210 State Street experiences flooding several times a year. The vacant building lies mere feet from Budd Inlet and is now owned by developer Walker John, who proposes to turn the property into a restaurant and 40 unit housing development. Photo taken March 10, 2016.For numerous articles about sea level rise and flooding incidents in downtown Olympia, the management of Capitol Lake, current sea level rise projections for Olympia with photos and maps, go to Little Hollywood, http://www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com and type key words into the search button.

The city's Utility Advisory Committee meets on the first Thursday of the month, at 5:40 p.m., in Olympia City Hall, Room 207, 601 4th Avenue East. For more information, go to www.olympiawa.gov.

Submitted by Allied Arts Foundation Allied Arts Foundation is currently accepting applications for our 2017 Emerging Artist Grant Awards. We will award eight grants to emerging artists residing in Western Washington: One $5,000 award, two $2,500 awards, and five $1,000 awards. The 2017 awards will focus on 2D Visual Arts only. Students are ineligible. To […]

Submitted by Joint Animal Services Cute bunnies and fuzzy chicks find their way into the Easter baskets each spring. Unfortunately, as they grow, many of these Easter pets become unwanted or owners are unable to care for them. Some neighborhoods do not allow these types of pets. Rather than a living addition to the Easter […]

Submitted by The City of Lacey The City of Lacey invites all S.T.E.M.- (science, technology, engineering, and math) related businesses, clubs, schools, and organizations to take part in the 4th Annual S.T.E.M Fair Saturday, May 20 at Huntamer Park in Lacey. Groups or businesses can join this event by engaging attendees of all ages (youth […]

Every day we walk by people on the street, in the grocery store and everywhere else we might go, but all too often we do not actually “see” them. This can especially be true if they are in a different age group. I remember as a high schooler not associating with many senior citizens unless they […]

Submitted by Saint Martin’s University Students and job-seekers will have an opportunity to connect with a wide range of employers Wednesday, April 26, at the 2017 Career and Internship Fair. The fair, co-sponsored by Saint Martin’s University and The Evergreen State College, will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Marcus Pavilion on […]

Published in the Weekly Volcano, April 6, 2017Aya Hashiguchi as Madame Pé and Eric Ray Anderson as General Léon Saint-Pé, photo by Jason Ganwich of Ganwich MediaRandy Clark, co-founder of Dukesbay Theater and director of the French farce The Waltz of the Toreadors, said he saw this play years ago at The Seattle Repertory Theatre and loved it, and that he has never seen it performed anywhere since. He said he does not understand why it is not being produced by other companies.I agree. It is side-splittingly funny, and it is intelligent and well written. The show is set in 1910 somewhere in France. Retired General Léon Saint-Pé (Eric Ray Anderson) no longer loves his invalid wife (Aya Hashiguchi), whom he suspects of being a hypochondriac. In fact, he seethes with hatred of her. For 17 years, he has been madly in love with another woman, Ghislaine (Kathryn Grace Philbrook), with whom he danced only once. She is equally in love with him. Over those many years, Léon remained true to his wife (except for some moments he managed to spend off in his garden with the household help, perhaps). Ghislaine has remained a virgin. When Ghislaine unexpectedly shows up at Léon’s home, pandemonium ensues. And she joyfully loses her virginity ― to say how and with whom would be a spoiler of the worst kind. Other scenes that would constitute spoilers, were I to tell about them, include many hilariously inept attempts at suicide by multiple characters.The Waltz of the Toreadors is a turn-of-the (last)-century sex farce that is as funny today as it was when it was first performed 66 years ago. Although a contemporary version could benefit from a little trimming. The set designed by Blake York with scenic painting by Jennifer York is gorgeous. I love the almost exclusively black and white furnishings and backdrops and white fleur-de-lis pattern on the black floor.Beyond the terrific script, what makes this comedy shine is the acting of the two major characters, Anderson and Philbrook. Anderson portrays the general as so overly excitable that I feared he would have a stroke, and Philbrook is appropriately ditsy and absurd, not to mention libidinous underneath an oh-so-proper facade.Anderson is the only equity actor in the play, and his resume is golden. He has appeared in such popular television shows as “Northern Exposure,” “Grimm” and “Twin Peaks,” and on stages throughout Western Washington — including (I’m quoting from his program bio) every stage in Seattle. This vast experience is clear in his depiction of General Léon Saint-Pé.With subtlety and grace, Joseph Grant creates in Dr. Bonfant a character who is wise and witty, and who secretly thinks everyone else is an idiot. Hashiguchi, co-founder of Dukesbay, spends most of the play either in bed or shouting at her husband from off-stage. She plays Madame Saint-Pé as nasty and manipulative (no wonder her husband wants to kill her).The physical affectations of the secretary, Gaston (Tim Takechi), seemed in the early scenes to be a bit wooden, but as the play moved through time his demeanor made more sense and Takechi’s character became more vibrant. Other actors in the show are Jeffery Weaver as Father Ambrose, Maria Valenzuela as Madame Dupont-Fredaine, and Jackie Villava-Cua and Audrey Montague as a pair of sisters who are models of shy decorum until they become screeching shrews. There is reality and even sadness beneath the hilarity of this French farce which, as Clark said, should be produced much more often. I am glad Dukesbay Theater is doing it.The Waltz of the Toreadors, 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, through April 9, $10-$15, Dukesbay Theater in the Merlino Arts Center, 508 S. Sixth Ave. #10, Tacoma, WA 98402, http://dukesbaywaltz.brownpapertickets.com

Photo: Video still and drawing in ink on newsprint by Isabelle Gresser, courtesy Kittredge Gallery

Isabelle Gresser installations, drawings and videos at UPSPublished in the Weekly Volcano, April 6, 2017Video still and drawing in ink on newsprint by Isabelle Gresser, courtesy Kittredge GalleryAll the way from Berlin, Germany, comes multi-dimensional artist Isabelle Gresser with a multi-media installation on the theme of pine trees, humanity, and international cultures. There are multiple videos with found footage and brilliant editing, drawings, photographs, and one wall featuring student work from a project called Nocturn Encounters: Utopian Affirmation, wherein the students came together for a few hours to exchange ideas and make drawings and print poems and other works on paper and attach them to the gallery wall.Gresser’s video work is inspirational and filled with a density of ideas expressed through a variety of video techniques combined with music and literature, including quotes from many famous poets and novelists. Her videos are stunningly beautiful.The drawings, both Gresser’s and those by the students, are mostly sketchy and often crudely executed. The best are from a group of small drawings in glass cases along with photographs, and passages from poems and other literary works.There are five large video works, some projected on large screens and some shown on monitors, all with head phones for listening to accompanying music and poetry. All place modern life, mostly urban, in natural scenes to present complex looks into various cultures and mankind’s relation to both natural and built worlds.“Nietzsche at Nice” is a surrealistic video that pictures a large video screen (a video within a video) set up on what appears to a boardwalk overlooking the beach at the French town of Nice. On the beach are two sunbathers, one male and one female. A Jeep drives by where sand meets ocean, and an airline flies overhead. A huge cruise ship slowly traverses the scene. Two spacemen appear on the beach next to the sunbathing man. It is a moment wherein reality and unreality meet — the essence of surrealism.“Iris 2.0” is a smaller video with a Renaissance-style portrait of a woman whose face continuously deconstructs and morphs into various abstract patterns as it is overlaid with concentric circles, geometric patterns, prisms, and a more modernistic collage-like rendering of the mouth of an archetypical model with a toothy smile superimposed over the Renaissance woman’s mouth. The model’s mouth, which is beautiful by most modern standards, becomes horrifying in this image.“Smart Seoul Poem” is a video of a street scene in Korea. On the street, there is a wall with a mural painted on it. The mural is of trees, and in front of the wall are actual trees which look so much like the painted trees that the only way to tell the difference is to notice how trunks of the painted trees are cut off sharply at the top edge of the wall. Behind the wall is a building under construction. Pedestrians walk past, and some of them fade into shadowy ghost figures. You can see through them. It is a poem in motion.The other videos are equally intriguing, with multiple meanings and many beautiful and startling special effects.Showing in the smaller back gallery is Painting the National Parks: Preserving A.W. Hill's Experience, an exhibition of landscape paintings from the Pacific Northwest in the 1920s and 30s by Abby Williams Hills, a popular artist at the time who lived and worked in Tacoma.Behind the Pines: Isabelle Gresser, Kittredge Gallery, Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday noon to 5 p.m., through April, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma, 253.879.3701.

The Funeral of Sir Francis Rottenfoot Sr. is an experimental spoken-word piece written and performed by Rachel Lionheart. Lionheart is a writer and spoken word artist.

"I have been developing The Funeral of Sir Francis Rottenfoot, Sr. over an 11-year period, through many phases and relationships in my life and after my brother died of psychedelic mushrooms. in 2001," Lionheart says. "I did not have words for his loss, but I did have an extremely heightened imagination and training from NYU in physical-based theater. Each performance of Sir Francis is a dedication and commitment to listening to the distinct, and at certain points of grief, unrecognizable inner-voice that makes sense out of the nonsense of life and death. This current evolution is dedicate to my Aunt Ruth and her daughters and grandchildren."

April is upon us and while it arrived with glorious sunshine, the rains have returned this week. Whether rain or shine, the blossoms and buds cannot be held back and there are signs of spring throughout Thurston County. We love having readers share their images of spring with us, too. Share yours on our Facebook Page […]

If you want to express your affection for a cat lover, give them a bouquet that doesn’t contain lilies. Otherwise, your gift may not have the effect you intended, as Dr. Blair Burggren’s mother-in-law found out the hard way. When Olympia Pet Emergency veterinarian Burggren and his wife moved into a new home ten years […]

The Governor’s Cellar restaurant in downtown Olympia may just be one of the best places to eat in Olympia that you have never heard of. Located in the historic Governor’s Hotel, just across from Sylvester Park, this unique, new venture is unlike anything else in town. Owner Lanette Miles is a Tumwater High School graduate […]

Every year, more than 7 million quarts of motor oil, equal to a tanker truck of oil per day, drips out of vehicles onto streets and parking lots and makes its way to lakes, rivers, streams and the Puget Sound. Most of this toxic pollution comes from small drips from cars and trucks. Motorists in Olympia can affordably fix and keep pollutants out of Puget Sound, thanks to the 2017 “Don’t Drip and Drive” campaign!

As part of this campaign, participating local auto repair shops will conduct a FREE visual leak inspection (a diagnostic service valued at up to $80) now through December 31, 2017. If there is a problem, the driver will receive a coupon for 10% off service (up to $50) to fix the problem - a total savings of up to $130!

The personal essay is a window into many worlds, starting with your own. Branch out to share your discoveries in a flexible and beautiful form. You will start by exploring variations of the form, and end with examples and exercises. This program is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Olympia Timberland Library and the Hispanic Roundtable of South Sound. Registration (online, by phone, or in person) is required and will open April 1.

This event will take place at the Olympia Timberland Library located at 313 8th Ave SE. Please call 360-352-0595 with any questions.

Margot Quan Knight‘s photography and video work has been featured in over 70 international publications and exhibited around the world, including solo shows at GAS Art Gallery, (Turin, Italy), 911 Media Arts Center, (Seattle, W.A.), and California State University (Chico, CA) and group shows at the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Ar/ge Kunst Galleria Museo (Bolzano, Italy), and the Dotmov Festival (Sapporo, Japan). Margot received a Master in Fine Art degree from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 2009.

This month Deb Ross meets with railroad historian Jim Hannum at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Capitol Way to learn about the history of rail traffic and transportation in Olympia, including a train accident that killed one person.

You can subscribe on the YouTube Channel page for updates and new videos. The show is in its second year.

Large-scale offshore wind energy has become a reality in Europe over the past decade, with continued development on the horizon in Europe, as well as Asia and the United States. While the vast majority of offshore wind energy development utilizes fixed bottom support structures, in shallow waters that are close to shore, floating offshore wind turbines show great potential for harnessing the wind resource far from shore, in transitional to deep water where the wind resource is greater and concerns about visibility are reduced. However, in both near shore, shallow water applications, and especially in deeper waters farther from shore, technical and economic feasibility challenges must be overcome. Understanding the fundamental hydrodynamic forces in the offshore environment, and in particular the added challenges of operating floating platforms in the ocean environment, is crucial to the success of future projects. Not only are floating platforms subject to loading from ocean waves, but also increased motion due to the wave–body interactions.

In this talk, Dr. Benitz will discuss offshore floating wind turbines, and how her research addresses the challenges of offshore wind energy development, as well as promotes its future success.

Scars and Stripes at the Spaceworks GalleryPublished in the Weekly Volcano, March 30, 2017Installation shot showing one wall of the Scars and Stripes exhibition, photo courtesy Spaceworks Tacoma.Little is known about the United States’ involvement in Cambodia during the Vietnam War or about the aftermath — the refugees, the deportees, the Americans in exile. The exhibition Scars and Stripes at Spaceworks Gallery examines all of that through photographs, paintings, video and performance art (readers may recall the preview article in the Mach 9 Weekly Volcano). Seldom have I seen so much information presented in so many inventive ways in so little space. This exhibition, curated by Silong Chhun, founder of Red Scarf Revolution, features photos and text from Khmer American: Naga Sheds Its Skin, an exhibition created by the Khmer American community and Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, and artworks by Raisa Nosova that explore the impact of war, genocide, resettlement, and deportation of Cambodian Americans then and now. Museum-like, the exhibition is arranged in five timeline sections: Peace, War X Genocide, Refugee Camps, Resettlement, and Deportation.In the “Peace” section we see both written and photographic histories of Cambodia before the war, and a wonderfully delicate papercut picture by Lauren Iida of a shoe vendor. She is on her knees, and shoes are laid out on the ground in front of her. Everything is in tones of white and gray.In the “War X Genocide” area we see two artworks. One is “The Khmer Rouge,” a two-art painting in embroidery, paint, fabric and thread is on canvas by Anida You Ali, which presents delicate images of barbed wire. A companion piece is “Behind the Fence,” an oil painting by Raisa Nosova of a woman behind a barbed wire fence in bold strokes of blue, ochre and pink on a black background. The woman is as see-through as the fence, as if she has become the fence or the fence is now her. The “Refugee Camps” section has photos of overcrowding among Cambodian children and families in Camp Pendleton in San Diego and of refugees in the Philippine refugee camp in Bataan.The “Resettlement” section asks the question, “What would you do if you were plucked down in the middle of a strange land with strange people and no knowledge of the language or customs or how to survive?” Evidence of answers to that question is given in the form of eye-opening photographs and newspaper clippings.The final section, “Deportation,” examines through art and video the plight of Cambodians who escaped to the United States when they were young children and who as teenagers were deported back to Cambodia, a land foreign to them, usually because of misdemeanors. In this section, we see Stuart Isett’s photo series “The Lost Boyz of Cambodia” and the video “Studio Revolt,” a series of three short films, two with Cambodian teens who consider themselves Exiled Americans talking about their lives, and a third a hard-hitting spoken poem. Also in this section are another painting by Nosova and another papercut piece by Iida. This show documents a set of histories many of us may not recognize. It’s time we did.Scars and Stripes, 1-5 p.m., Monday-Friday and 1-9 p.m. Third Thursday, through April 20, Spaceworks Gallery, 950 Pacific Ave., Tacoma.

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